1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems, methods, and computer program products for monitoring networked devices. Configuration and status information is gathered from the networked devices by a remote monitor and is sent in an electronic mail form, such as e-mail, to a central monitoring site.
2. Discussion of the Background
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/756,120 filed on Jan. 9, 2001, describes a system for remotely monitoring networked devices using e-mail. As described in that application, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used by a remote monitor to collect information from networked devices. The collected information is then sent to a central monitor using, for example, e-mail.
In order to remotely monitor devices, both configuration information and status information are collected. Accordingly, as described in the above-referenced application, both configuration and status information are sent from the remote monitor to the central monitor. The configuration information may include, for example, device make and model information, device-unique serial number and address information, device physical location information, contact information, etc. The status information may include any number of alarm and state conditions depending on the type of device. For example, a printer may include a “paper jam” indicator, or an “out of paper” indicator, etc., while a business office appliance may include other indicators.
As the number of different classes of information (e.g., configuration or status) increases, or the number of different types of devices being supported increases, the complexity of remotely monitoring these devices also increases.